APPLE INC. is an American multinational technology company
headquartered in
Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and
sells consumer electronics , computer software , and online services.
The company's hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, the
iPad tablet computer, the Mac personal computer, the iPod portable
media player, the
Apple Watch smartwatch, and the
Apple TV digital
media player. Apple's consumer software includes the macOS and iOS
operating systems, the iTunes media player, the Safari web browser,
and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites. Its online
services include the iTunes Store , the iOS App Store and Mac App
Store ,
Apple Music , and iCloud .

Apple was founded by
Steve Jobs ,
Steve Wozniak , and
Ronald Wayne in
April 1976 to develop and sell personal computers. It was incorporated
as APPLE COMPUTER, INC. in January 1977, and sales of its computers
saw significant momentum and revenue growth for the company. Within a
few years, they had hired a staff of computer designers and had a
production line. Apple went public in 1980 to instant financial
success. Over the next few years, Apple shipped new computers
featuring innovative graphical user interfaces , and Apple's marketing
commercials for its products received widespread critical acclaim.
However, the high price tag of its products and limited software
titles caused problems, as did power struggles between executives at
the company. Jobs resigned from Apple and created his own company . As
the market for personal computers increased, Apple's computers saw
diminishing sales due to lower-priced products from competitors, in
particular those offered with the
Microsoft Windows operating system.
More executive job shuffles happened at Apple until then-
CEO Gil
Amelio in 1997 decided to buy Jobs' company to bring him back. Jobs
regained position as CEO, and began a process to rebuild Apple's
status, which included opening Apple's own retail stores in 2001,
making numerous acquisitions of software companies to create a
portfolio of software titles, and changed some of the hardware
technology used in its computers. It again saw success and returned to
profitability. In January 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer,
Inc. would be renamed
Apple Inc. to reflect its shifted focus toward
consumer electronics and announced the iPhone , which saw critical
acclaim and significant financial success. In August 2011, Jobs
resigned as
CEO due to health complications, and
Tim Cook became the
new CEO. Two months later, Jobs died, marking the end of an era for
the company.

Apple is the world\'s largest information technology company by
revenue and the world\'s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer
after
Samsung . In February 2015, Apple became the first U.S. company
to be valued at over
US$ 700 billion. The company employs 116,000
full-time employees as of October 2016 and maintains 498 retail
stores in 22 countries as of July 2017 . It operates the iTunes Store,
which is the world's largest music retailer. As of January 2016 , more
than one billion Apple products are actively in use worldwide.

Apple's worldwide annual revenue totaled $215 billion for the 2016
fiscal year . The company enjoys a high level of brand loyalty and has
been repeatedly ranked as the world's most valuable brand. However, it
receives significant criticism regarding the labor practices of its
contractors and its environmental and business practices, including
the origins of source materials.

The birthplace of Apple Computer. In 1976,
Steve Jobs co-founded
the company in the garage of his childhood home on Crist Drive in Los
Altos,
California . Apple's first product, the
Apple I ,
invented by Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak , was sold as an assembled
circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard, monitor,
and case. The owner of this unit added a keyboard and wooden case.
The
Apple II , introduced in 1977, was a major technological
advancement over its predecessor.

Apple Computer Company was founded on April 1, 1976, by
Steve Jobs ,
Steve Wozniak and
Ronald Wayne . The company's first product was the
Apple I , a computer single-handedly designed and hand-built by
Wozniak, and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club
.
Apple I was sold as a motherboard (with CPU , RAM , and basic
textual-video chips), which was less than what is now considered a
complete personal computer. The
Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and
was market-priced at $666.66 ($2,806 in 2016 dollars, adjusted for
inflation).

Apple Computer, Inc. was incorporated on January 3, 1977, without
Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for
$800. Multimillionaire
Mike Markkula provided essential business
expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation of Apple.
During the first five years of operations revenues grew exponentially,
doubling about every four months. Between September 1977 and September
1980 yearly sales grew from $775,000 to $118m, an average annual
growth rate of 533%.

The
Apple II , also invented by Wozniak, was introduced on April 16,
1977, at the first
West Coast Computer Faire . It differed from its
major rivals, the
TRS-80 and
Commodore PET , because of its character
cell-based color graphics and open architecture . While early Apple II
models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were
superseded by the introduction of a 5 ¼ inch floppy disk drive and
interface called the
Disk II . The
Apple II was chosen to be the
desktop platform for the first "killer app " of the business world:
VisiCalc , a spreadsheet program .
VisiCalc created a business market
for the
Apple II and gave home users an additional reason to buy an
Apple II: compatibility with the office. Before VisiCalc, Apple had
been a distant third place competitor to Commodore and Tandy .

By the end of 1970's, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a
production line. The company introduced the
Apple III in May 1980 in
an attempt to compete with
IBM and
Microsoft in the business and
corporate computing market. Jobs and several Apple employees,
including
Jef Raskin , visited
Xerox PARC in December 1979 to see the
Xerox Alto .
Xerox granted Apple engineers three days of access to the
PARC facilities in return for the option to buy 100,000 shares
(800,000 split-adjusted shares) of Apple at the pre-IPO price of $10 a
share.

Jobs was immediately convinced that all future computers would use a
graphical user interface (GUI ), and development of a GUI began for
the
Apple Lisa . In 1982, however, he was pushed from the Lisa team
due to infighting. Jobs took over Jef Raskin's low-cost-computer
project, the
Macintosh . A race broke out between the Lisa team and
the
Macintosh team over which product would ship first. Lisa won the
race in 1983 and became the first personal computer sold to the public
with a GUI, but was a commercial failure due to its high price tag and
limited software titles.

On December 12, 1980, Apple went public at $22 per share, generating
more capital than any IPO since
Ford Motor Company in 1956 and
immediately creating 300 millionaires.

1984–91: SUCCESS WITH MACINTOSH

See also: Timeline of
Macintosh models The
Macintosh , released
in 1984, was the first mass-market personal computer that featured an
integral graphical user interface and mouse.

In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh, the first personal computer to
be sold without a programming language . Its debut was signified by
"1984" , a $1.5 million television commercial directed by Ridley Scott
that aired during the third quarter of
Super Bowl XVIII on January 22,
1984. The commercial is now hailed as a watershed event for Apple's
success and was called a "masterpiece" by
CNN and one of the
greatest commercials of all time by _
TV Guide _.

The
Macintosh initially sold well, but follow-up sales were not
strong due to its high price and limited range of software titles.
The machine's fortunes changed with the introduction of the
LaserWriter , the first
PostScript laser printer to be sold at a
reasonable price, and PageMaker , an early desktop publishing package.
It has been suggested that the combination of these three products
were responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market.
The
Macintosh was particularly powerful in the desktop publishing
market due to its advanced graphics capabilities, which had
necessarily been built in to create the intuitive
Macintosh GUI.

In 1985, a power struggle developed between Jobs and
CEO John Sculley
, who had been hired two years earlier. The Apple board of directors
instructed Sculley to "contain" Jobs and limit his ability to launch
expensive forays into untested products. Rather than submit to
Sculley's direction, Jobs attempted to oust him from his leadership
role at Apple. Sculley found out that Jobs had been attempting to
organize a coup and called a board meeting at which Apple's board of
directors sided with Sculley and removed Jobs from his managerial
duties. Jobs resigned from Apple and founded
NeXT Inc. the same year.
The
Macintosh Portable , released in 1989, was Apple's first
battery-powered portable
Macintosh personal computer.

After Jobs' departure, the
Macintosh product line underwent a steady
change of focus to higher price points, the so-called "high-right
policy" named for the position on a chart of price vs. profits. Jobs
had argued the company should produce products aimed at the consumer
market and aimed for a $1000 price for the Macintosh, which they were
unable to meet. Newer models selling at higher price points offered
higher profit margin , and appeared to have no effect on total sales
as power users snapped up every increase in power. Although some
worried about pricing themselves out of the market, the high-right
policy was in full force by the mid-1980s, notably due to Jean-Louis
Gassée 's mantra of "fifty-five or die", referring to the 55% profit
margins of the
Macintosh II .

This policy began to backfire in the last years of the decade as new
desktop publishing programs appeared on PC clones that offered some or
much of the same functionality of the
Macintosh but at far lower price
points. The company lost its monopoly in this market, and had already
estranged many of its original consumer customer base who could no
longer afford their high-priced products. The Christmas season of 1989
was the first in the company's history that saw declining sales, and
led to a 20% drop in Apple's stock price. Gassée's objections were
overruled, and he was forced from the company in 1990. Later that
year, Apple introduced three lower cost models, the
Macintosh Classic
,
Macintosh LC and
Macintosh IIsi , all of which saw significant sales
due to pent up demand.

In 1991, Apple introduced the
PowerBook , replacing the "luggable"
Macintosh Portable with a design that set the current shape for almost
all modern laptops. The same year, Apple introduced
System 7 , a major
upgrade to the operating system which added color to the interface and
introduced new networking capabilities. It remained the architectural
basis for the
Classic Mac OS . The success of the
PowerBook and other
products brought increasing revenue. For some time, Apple was doing
incredibly well, introducing fresh new products and generating
increasing profits in the process. The magazine _MacAddict _ named the
period between 1989 and 1991 as the "first golden age" of the
Macintosh.

Apple believed the
Apple II series was too expensive to produce and
took away sales from the low-end Macintosh. In the 1990s, Apple
released the
Macintosh LC , and began efforts to promote that computer
by advising developer technical support staff to recommend developing
applications for
Macintosh rather than Apple II, and authorizing
salespersons to direct consumers towards
Macintosh and away from Apple
II. The
Apple IIe was discontinued in 1993.

1991–97: DECLINE AND RESTRUCTURING

See also: Timeline of the
Apple II family The Penlite was
Apple's first attempt at a tablet computer. Created in 1992, the
project was designed to bring the Mac OS to a tablet – but was
shelved in favor of the Newton .

The success of Apple's lower-cost consumer models, especially the LC,
also led to cannibalization of their higher priced machines. To
address this, management introduced several new brands, selling
largely identical machines at different price points aimed at
different markets. These were the high-end Quadra , the mid-range
Centris line, and the ill-fated Performa series. This led to
significant market confusion, as customers did not understand the
difference between models.

Apple also experimented with a number of other unsuccessful consumer
targeted products during the 1990s, including digital cameras ,
portable CD audio players , speakers , video consoles , the eWorld
online service, and TV appliances . Enormous resources were also
invested in the problem-plagued Newton division based on John
Sculley's unrealistic market forecasts. Ultimately, none of these
products helped and Apple's market share and stock prices continued to
slide.

Throughout this period,
Microsoft continued to gain market share with
Windows by focusing on delivering software to cheap commodity personal
computers, while Apple was delivering a richly engineered but
expensive experience. Apple relied on high profit margins and never
developed a clear response; instead, they sued
Microsoft for using a
GUI similar to the
Apple Lisa in _Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft
Corp. _ The lawsuit dragged on for years before it was finally
dismissed. At this time, a series of major product flops and missed
deadlines sullied Apple's reputation, and Sculley was replaced as CEO
by
Michael Spindler . The Newton was Apple's first foray into
the PDA markets, as well as one of the first in the industry. Despite
being a financial flop at the time of its release, it helped pave the
way for the
PalmPilot and Apple's own iPhone and iPad in the future.

By the early 1990s, Apple was developing alternative platforms to the
Macintosh, such as
A/UX . The
Macintosh platform itself was becoming
outdated because it was not built for multitasking and because several
important software routines were programmed directly into the
hardware. In addition, Apple was facing competition from
OS/2 and UNIX
vendors such as
Sun Microsystems . The
Macintosh would need to be
replaced by a new platform or reworked to run on more powerful
hardware.

In 1994, Apple allied with
IBM and
Motorola in the
AIM alliance with
the goal of creating a new computing platform (the
PowerPC Reference
Platform ), which would use
IBM and
Motorola hardware coupled with
Apple software. The
AIM alliance hoped that PReP's performance and
Apple's software would leave the PC far behind and thus counter
Microsoft. The same year, Apple introduced the Power
Macintosh , the
first of many Apple computers to use Motorola's
PowerPC processor.

In 1996, Spindler was replaced by
Gil Amelio as CEO. Amelio made
numerous changes at Apple, including extensive layoffs and cut costs.
After numerous failed attempts to improve Mac OS, first with the
Taligent project and later with Copland and Gershwin , Amelio chose to
purchase
NeXT and its
NeXTSTEP operating system and bring Steve Jobs
back to Apple.

1997–2007: RETURN TO PROFITABILITY

Power Mac was a line of Apple
Macintosh workstation-class
personal computers based on various models of
PowerPC microprocessors
that were developed from 1994 to 2006.

The
NeXT deal was finalized on February 9, 1997, bringing Jobs back
to Apple as an advisor. On July 9, 1997, Amelio was ousted by the
board of directors after overseeing a three-year record-low stock
price and crippling financial losses. Jobs acted as the interim CEO
and began restructuring the company's product line; it was during this
period that he identified the design talent of
Jonathan Ive , and the
pair worked collaboratively to rebuild Apple's status.

At the 1997
Macworld Expo , Jobs announced that Apple would join
Microsoft to release new versions of
Microsoft Office for the
Macintosh, and that
Microsoft had made a $150 million investment in
non-voting Apple stock. On November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the
Apple Online Store , which was tied to a new build-to-order
manufacturing strategy.

On August 15, 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer
reminiscent of the
Macintosh 128K : the iMac . The iMac design team
was led by Ive, who would later design the iPod and the iPhone . The
iMac featured modern technology and a unique design, and sold almost
800,000 units in its first five months.

During this period, Apple completed numerous acquisitions to create a
portfolio of digital production software for both professionals and
consumers. In 1998, Apple purchased
Macromedia 's Key Grip software
project, signaling an expansion into the digital video editing market.
The sale was an outcome of Macromedia's decision to solely focus upon
web development software. The product, still unfinished at the time of
the sale, was renamed "
Final Cut Pro " when it was launched on the
retail market in April 1999. The development of Key Grip also led to
Apple's release of the consumer video-editing product iMovie in
October 1999. Next, Apple successfully acquired the German company
Astarte, which had developed
DVD authoring technology, as well as
Astarte's corresponding products and engineering team in April 2000.
Astarte's digital tool DVDirector was subsequently transformed into
the professional-oriented
DVD Studio Pro software product. Apple then
employed the same technology to create iDVD for the consumer market.
In 2002, Apple purchased
Nothing Real for their advanced digital
compositing application Shake , as well as
Emagic for the music
productivity application Logic . The purchase of
Emagic made Apple the
first computer manufacturer to own a music software company. The
acquisition was followed by the development of Apple's consumer-level
GarageBand application. The release of iPhoto in the same year
completed the iLife suite.

Mac OS X , based on NeXT's OPENSTEP and BSD
Unix , was released on
March 24, 2001, after several years of development. Aimed at consumers
and professionals alike, Mac OS X aimed to combine the stability,
reliability and security of
Unix with the ease of use afforded by an
overhauled user interface. To aid users in migrating from
Mac OS 9 ,
the new operating system allowed the use of OS 9 applications within
Mac OS X via the
Classic Environment .

On May 19, 2001, Apple opened its first official eponymous retail
stores in Virginia and California. On October 23 of the same year,
Apple debuted the iPod portable digital audio player. The product,
which was first sold on November 10, 2001, was phenomenally successful
with over 100 million units sold within six years. In 2003, Apple's
iTunes Store was introduced. The service offered online music
downloads for $0.99 a song and integration with the iPod. The iTunes
Store quickly became the market leader in online music services, with
over five billion downloads by June 19, 2008. Two years later, the
iTunes Store was the world's largest music retailer. Main article:
Apple\'s transition to
Intel processors The
MacBook Pro ,
Apple's first laptop with an
Intel microprocessor, introduced in 2006.

At the
Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6,
2005, Jobs announced that Apple would begin producing
Intel -based Mac
computers in 2006. On January 10, 2006, the new
MacBook Pro and iMac
became the first Apple computers to use Intel's
Core Duo CPU. By
August 7, 2006, Apple made the transition to
Intel chips for the
entire Mac product line—over one year sooner than announced. The
Power Mac, i
Book and
PowerBook brands were retired during the
transition; the
Mac Pro ,
MacBook , and
MacBook Pro became their
respective successors. On April 29, 2009, _
The Wall Street Journal _
reported that Apple was building its own team of engineers to design
microchips. Apple also introduced Boot Camp in 2006 to help users
install
Windows XP or
Windows Vista on their
Intel Macs alongside Mac
OS X.

Apple's success during this period was evident in its stock price.
Between early 2003 and 2006, the price of Apple's stock increased more
than tenfold, from around $6 per share (split-adjusted) to over $80.
In January 2006, Apple's market cap surpassed that of
Dell . Nine
years prior, Dell's
CEO Michael
Dell had said that if he ran Apple he
would "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."
Although Apple's market share in computers had grown, it remained far
behind competitors using
Microsoft Windows, accounting for about 8% of
desktops and laptops in the US.

Since 2001, Apple's design team has progressively abandoned the use
of translucent colored plastics first used in the iMac G3 . This
design change began with the titanium -made
PowerBook and was followed
by the i
Book 's white polycarbonate structure and the flat-panel iMac
.

2007–11: SUCCESS WITH MOBILE DEVICES

A first generation iPhone , one of
Jonathan Ive 's most
recognized industrial designs. The iPhone has been phenomenally
successful, with over 1 billion units sold worldwide.

During his keynote speech at the
Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007,
Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would thereafter be known as
"Apple Inc.", because the company had shifted its emphasis from
computers to consumer electronics. This event also saw the
announcement of the iPhone and the
Apple TV . The company sold
270,000 iPhone units during the first 30 hours of sales, and the
device was called "a game changer for the industry". Apple would
achieve widespread success with its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
products, which introduced innovations in mobile phones , portable
music players and personal computers respectively. Furthermore, by
early 2007, 800,000
Final Cut Pro users were registered.

In an article posted on Apple's website on February 6, 2007, Jobs
wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store
without digital rights management (DRM), thereby allowing tracks to be
played on third-party players, if record labels would agree to drop
the technology. On April 2, 2007, Apple and
EMI jointly announced the
removal of DRM technology from EMI's catalog in the iTunes Store,
effective in May 2007. Other record labels eventually followed suit
and Apple published a press release in January 2009 to announce the
corresponding changes to the iTunes Store.

In July 2008, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party
applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch . Within a month, the
store sold 60 million applications and registered an average daily
revenue of $1 million, with Jobs speculating in August 2008 that the
App Store could become a billion-dollar business for Apple. By
October 2008, Apple was the third-largest mobile handset supplier in
the world due to the popularity of the iPhone.

On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that 2009 would be the last
year the corporation would attend the
Macworld Expo, after more than
20 years of attendance, and that senior vice president of Worldwide
Product Marketing
Phil Schiller would deliver the 2009 keynote address
in lieu of the expected Jobs. The official press release explained
that Apple was "scaling back" on trade shows in general, including
Macworld Tokyo and the Apple Expo in Paris, France, primarily because
the enormous successes of the Apple Retail Stores and website had
rendered trade shows a minor promotional channel.

On January 14, 2009, Jobs announced in an internal memo that he would
be taking a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple until the
end of June 2009 and would spend the time focusing on his health. In
the email, Jobs stated that "the curiosity over my personal health
continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but
everyone else at Apple as well", and explained that the break would
allow the company "to focus on delivering extraordinary products".
Despite Jobs's absence, Apple recorded its best non-holiday quarter
(Q1 FY 2009) during the recession with revenue of $8.16 billion and
profit of $1.21 billion.

After years of speculation and multiple rumored "leaks", Apple
unveiled a large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on
January 27, 2010. The iPad ran the same touch-based operating system
as the iPhone, and many iPhone apps were compatible with the iPad.
This gave the iPad a large app catalog on launch, despite very little
development time before the release. Later that year on April 3, 2010,
the iPad was launched in the US. It sold more than 300,000 units on
its first day, and 500,000 by the end of the first week. In May of
the same year, Apple's market cap exceeded that of competitor
Microsoft for the first time since 1989.

In June 2010, Apple released the iPhone 4 , which introduced video
calling , multitasking , and a new uninsulated stainless steel design
that acted as the phone's antenna. Later that year, Apple again
refreshed its iPod line of MP3 players by introducing a multi-touch
iPod Nano , an iPod Touch with
FaceTime , and an iPod Shuffle that
brought back the buttons of earlier generations. Additionally, on
October 20, Apple updated the
MacBook Air laptop, iLife suite of
applications, and unveiled
Mac OS X Lion , the last version with the
name _Mac OS X _.

In October 2010, Apple shares hit an all-time high, eclipsing $300.

On January 6, 2011, the company opened its
Mac App Store , a digital
software distribution platform similar to the iOS App Store.

Alongside peer entities such as Atari and Cisco Systems, Apple was
featured in the documentary _Something Ventured _, which premiered in
2011 and explored the three-decade era that led to the establishment
and dominance of Silicon Valley.

On January 17, 2011, Jobs announced in an internal Apple memo that he
would take another medical leave of absence for an indefinite period
to allow him to focus on his health. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook
assumed Jobs's day-to-day operations at Apple, although Jobs would
still remain "involved in major strategic decisions". Apple became
the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world. In June 2011,
Jobs surprisingly took the stage and unveiled iCloud , an online
storage and syncing service for music, photos, files and software
which replaced MobileMe, Apple's previous attempt at content syncing.

This would be the last product launch Jobs would attend before his
death. It has been argued that Apple has achieved such efficiency in
its supply chain that the company operates as a monopsony (one buyer,
many sellers) and can dictate terms to its suppliers. In July 2011,
due to the American debt-ceiling crisis , Apple's financial reserves
were briefly larger than those of the U.S. Government .

On August 24, 2011, Jobs resigned his position as
CEO of Apple. He
was replaced by Cook and Jobs became Apple's chairman. Prior to this,
Apple did not have a chairman and instead had two co-lead directors,
Andrea Jung and
Arthur D. Levinson , who continued with those titles
until Levinson became
Chairman of the Board in November.

2011–PRESENT: POST-STEVE JOBS ERA; TIM COOK LEADERSHIP

On October 5, 2011,
Steve Jobs died, marking the end of an era for
Apple. The first major product announcement by Apple following
Jobs's passing occurred on January 19, 2012, when Apple's Phil
Schiller introduced iBooks Textbooks for iOS and i
Book Author for Mac
OS X in New York City. Jobs had stated in his biography that he
wanted to reinvent the textbook industry and education.

From 2011 to 2012, Apple released the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 ,
which featured improved cameras, an intelligent software assistant
named
Siri , and cloud-sourced data with iCloud; the third and fourth
generation iPads, which featured Retina displays ; and the iPad
Mini , which featured a 7.9-inch screen in contrast to the iPad's
9.7-inch screen. These launches were successful, with the iPhone 5
(released September 21, 2012) becoming Apple's biggest iPhone launch
with over two million pre-orders and sales of three million iPads in
three days following the launch of the iPad Mini and fourth generation
iPad (released November 3, 2012). Apple also released a
third-generation 13-inch
MacBook Pro with a Retina display and new
iMac and
Mac Mini computers.

On August 20, 2012, Apple's rising stock price increased the
company's market capitalization to a world-record $624 billion. This
beat the non-inflation-adjusted record for market capitalization set
by
Microsoft in 1999. On August 24, 2012, a US jury ruled that
Samsung should pay Apple $1.05 billion (£665m) in damages in an
intellectual property lawsuit.
Samsung appealed the damages award,
which the Court reduced by $450 million. The Court further granted
Samsung's request for a new trial. On November 10, 2012, Apple
confirmed a global settlement that would dismiss all lawsuits between
Apple and
HTC up to that date, in favor of a ten-year license
agreement for current and future patents between the two companies.
It is predicted that Apple will make $280 million a year from this
deal with HTC.

A previously confidential email written by Jobs a year before his
death was presented during the proceedings of the _
Apple Inc. v.
Samsung Electronics Co. _ lawsuits and became publicly available in
early April 2014. With a subject line that reads "Top 100 – A," the
email was sent only to the company's 100 most senior employees and
outlines Jobs's vision of Apple Inc.'s future under 10 subheadings.
Notably, Jobs declares a "Holy War with Google" for 2011 and schedules
a "new campus" for 2015.

In March 2013, Apple filed a patent for an augmented reality (AR)
system that can identify objects in a live video stream and present
information corresponding to these objects through a
computer-generated information layer overlaid on top of the real-world
image. The company also made several high-profile hiring decisions in
2013. On July 2, 2013, Apple recruited
Paul Deneve , Belgian President
and
CEO of Yves Saint Laurent as a vice president reporting directly
to Tim Cook. A mid-October 2013 announcement revealed that Burberry
executive
Angela Ahrendts will commence as a senior vice president at
Apple in mid-2014. Ahrendts oversaw Burberry's digital strategy for
almost eight years and, during her tenure, sales increased to about
US$3.2 billion and shares gained more than threefold.

Alongside
Google vice-president Vint Cerf and AT 2013, 2014, 2015,
and 2016, with a valuation of $178.1 billion.

In January 2016, it was announced that one billion Apple devices are
in active use worldwide.

On May 12, 2016, Apple Inc., invested
US$ 1 billion in
Didi Chuxing ,
a Chinese competitor to Uber . _The Information_ reported in
October 2016 that Apple had taken a board seat in Didi Chuxing, a
move that James Vincent of _
The Verge _ speculated could be a
strategic company decision by Apple to get closer to the automobile
industry, particularly Didi Chuxing's reported interest in
self-driving cars.

On June 6, 2016,
Forbes released their list of companies ranked on
revenue generation. In the trailing fiscal year, Apple appeared on the
list as the top tech company. It ranked third, overall, with $233
billion in revenue. This represents a movement upward of two spots
from the previous year's list.

On April 6, 2017, Apple launched Clips , an app that allows iPad and
iPhone users to make and edit videos. The app provides a way to
produce short videos to share with other users on the Messages app,
Instagram ,
Facebook and other social networks. Apple also introduced
Live Titles for Clips that allows users to add live animated captions
and titles using their voice.

Towards the end of May 2017, Apple refreshed two of its website
designs. Its public relations "Apple Press Info" website was changed
to a new "Apple Newsroom" site, featuring a greater emphasis on
imagery and therefore lower information density, and combines press
releases, news items and photos. Its "Apple Leadership" overview of
company executives was also refreshed, adding a simpler layout with a
prominent header image and two-column text fields. _9to5Mac_ noted the
design similarities to several of Apple's redesigned apps in iOS 10 ,
particularly its
Apple Music and News software.

Main article: iPod iPod line as of 2014 . From left to right:
iPod Shuffle , iPod Nano , iPod Touch .

On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod digital music player.
Several updated models have since been introduced, and the iPod brand
is now the market leader in portable music players by a significant
margin. More than 350 million units have shipped as of September 2012
. Apple has partnered with Nike to offer the
Nike+iPod Sports Kit,
enabling runners to synchronize and monitor their runs with iTunes and
the Nike+ website.

Apple currently sells only one version of the iPod, discontinuing the
iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle in late July 2017.

* iPod Touch : Portable media player that runs iOS and is currently
available in 16, 32, 64, and 128 GB models, introduced in 2007. The
current generation features the
Apple A8 processor, a
Retina Display ,
Siri and cameras on the front (1.2 megapixel sensor) and back (8
megapixel iSight ). The latter camera supports HD video recording at
1080p and slow motion video at 120fps in 720p.

At the
Macworld Conference & Expo in January 2007, Steve Jobs
introduced the long-anticipated iPhone , a convergence of an
Internet-enabled smartphone and iPod. The first-generation iPhone was
released on June 29, 2007, for $499 (4 GB) and $599 (8 GB) with an
AT">
IPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were introduced on September 7,
2016.

On September 7, 2016, Apple introduced the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7
Plus , which feature improved system and graphics performance, add
water resistance, a new rear dual-camera system on the 7 Plus model,
and, controversially, remove the 3.5 mm headphone jack.

In July 2016, Apple announced that one billion iPhones had been sold.

IPAD

Main article: iPad iPad Air 2 in Gold

On January 27, 2010, Apple introduced their much-anticipated media
tablet , the iPad . It offers multi-touch interaction with
multimedia formats including newspapers, e-books, photos, videos,
music, word processing documents, video games, and most existing
iPhone apps using a 9.7-inch screen. It also includes a mobile
version of Safari for web browsing, as well as access to the App
Store, iTunes Library, iBookstore , Contacts, and Notes. Content is
downloadable via
Wi-Fi and optional 3G service or synced through the
user's computer.
AT&T was initially the sole U.S. provider of 3G
wireless access for the iPad.

On March 2, 2011, Apple introduced the iPad 2 , which had a faster
processor and a camera on the front and back. It also added support
for optional 3G service provided by Verizon in addition to
AT&T . The
availability of the iPad 2 was initially limited as a result of a
devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011.

The third-generation iPad was released on March 7, 2012, and marketed
as "the new iPad ". It added LTE service from AT"> , is over 100
billion.

On September 9, 2015, Apple announced the iPad Pro , an iPad with a
12.9-inch display that supports two new accessories, the Smart
Keyboard and
Apple Pencil . An updated
IPad Mini 4 was announced at
the same time. A 9.7-inch iPad Pro was announced on March 21, 2016.
On June 5, 2017, Apple announced a new iPad Pro with a 10.5-inch
display to replace the 9.7 inch model and an updated 12.9-inch model.

APPLE WATCH

Main article:
Apple Watch The
Apple Watch quickly became the
best-selling wearable device, with the shipment of 11.4 million smart
watches in the first half of 2015, according to analyst firm Canalys.

The
Apple Watch smartwatch was announced by Cook on September 9,
2014, and released on April 24, 2015. The wearable device
consists of fitness-tracking capabilities that are similar to
Fitbit ,
and must be used in combination with an iPhone to work (only the
iPhone 5 , or later models, are compatible with the Apple Watch).

The second generation of Apple Watch,
Apple Watch Series 2 and Apple
Watch Series 1 were released in September 2016.

At the 2007
Macworld conference, Jobs demonstrated the Apple TV
(previously known as the iTV), a set-top video device intended to
bridge the sale of content from iTunes with high-definition
televisions. The device links up to a user's TV and syncs, either via
Wi-Fi or a wired network, with one computer's iTunes library and
streams content from an additional four. The
Apple TV originally
incorporated a 40 GB hard drive for storage, included outputs for HDMI
and component video , and played video at a maximum resolution of 720p
. On May 31, 2007, a 160 GB hard disk drive was released alongside
the existing 40 GB model. A software update released on January 15,
2008, allowed media to be purchased directly from the Apple TV.

In September 2009, Apple discontinued the original 40 GB
Apple TV and
now continues to produce and sell the 160 GB Apple TV. On September 1,
2010, Apple released a completely redesigned Apple TV. The new device
is 1/4 the size, runs quieter, and replaces the need for a hard drive
with media streaming from any iTunes library on the network along with
8 GB of flash memory to cache media downloaded. Like the iPad and the
iPhone,
Apple TV runs on an A4 processor. The memory included in the
device is half of that in the iPhone 4 at 256 MB; the same as the
iPad, iPhone 3GS, third and fourth-generation iPod Touch .

It has
HDMI out as the only video out source. Features include access
to the iTunes Store to rent movies and TV shows (purchasing has been
discontinued), streaming from internet video sources, including
YouTube and
Netflix , and media streaming from an iTunes library.
Apple also reduced the price of the device to $99. A third generation
of the device was introduced at an Apple event on March 7, 2012, with
new features such as higher resolution (1080p) and a new user
interface.

At the September 9, 2015, event, Apple unveiled an overhauled Apple
TV, which now runs a variant of OS X, tvOS , and contains 32GB or 64
GB of NAND Flash to store games, programs, and to cache the current
media playing. The release also coincided with the opening of a
separate
Apple TV App Store and a new
Siri Remote with a glass
touchpad , gyroscope , and microphone .

Apple develops its own operating systems to run on its devices,
including macOS for Mac personal computers, iOS for its iPhone and
iPad smartphones and tablets, watchOS for its Apple Watch
smartwatches, and tvOS for its
Apple TV digital media player.

For iOS and macOS, Apple also develops its own software titles,
including Pages for writing, Numbers for spreadsheets, and Keynote for
presentations, as part of its iWork productivity suite. For macOS, it
also offers iMovie and
Final Cut Pro X for video editing, and
GarageBand and
Logic Pro X for music creation.

Apple also offers online services with iCloud , which provides cloud
storage and synchronization for a wide range of user data, including
documents, photos, music, device backups, and application data, and
Apple Music , its music and video streaming service .

Apple Energy, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Apple Inc. that
sells solar energy . As of June 6, 2016, Apple's solar farms in
California and Nevada have been declared to provide 217.9 megawatts of
solar generation capacity. In addition to the company's solar energy
production, Apple has received regulatory approval to construct a
landfill gas energy plant in
North Carolina . Apple will use the
methane emissions to generate electricity. Apple's North Carolina
data center is already powered entirely with energy from renewable
sources.

CORPORATE IDENTITY

LOGO

See also:
Typography of Apple Inc. "Apple logo" redirects here. For
the programming language, see
Apple Logo . First Apple logo
(April 1, 1976, Prototype) First official Apple logo used from
April 1977 to 1998 Apple logo 1998–2003 Current Apple logo
since 2003

According to Steve Jobs, the company's name was inspired by his visit
to an apple farm while on a fruitarian diet. Jobs thought the name
"Apple" was "fun, spirited and not intimidating".

Apple's first logo, designed by Ron Wayne, depicts Sir Isaac Newton
sitting under an apple tree. It was almost immediately replaced by Rob
Janoff 's "rainbow Apple", the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette
of an apple with a bite taken out of it. Janoff presented Jobs with
several different monochromatic themes for the "bitten" logo, and Jobs
immediately took a liking to it. However, Jobs insisted that the logo
be colorized to humanize the company. The logo was designed with a
bite so that it would not be confused with a cherry. The colored
stripes were conceived to make the logo more accessible, and to
represent the fact the
Apple II could generate graphics in color.
This logo is often erroneously referred to as a tribute to Alan Turing
, with the bite mark a reference to his method of suicide . Both
Janoff and Apple deny any homage to Turing in the design of the logo.

On August 27, 1999 (the year following the introduction of the iMac
G3 ), Apple officially dropped the rainbow scheme and began to use
monochromatic logos nearly identical in shape to the previous rainbow
incarnation. An Aqua -themed version of the monochrome logo was used
from 1998 to 2003, and a glass-themed version was used from 2007 to
2013.

Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak were Beatles fans, but
Apple Inc. had
name and logo trademark issues with
Apple Corps Ltd. , a multimedia
company started by the Beatles in 1967. This resulted in a series of
lawsuits and tension between the two companies. These issues ended
with settling of their most recent lawsuit in 2007.

Apple's first slogan, "
Byte into an Apple", was coined in the late
1970s. From 1997 to 2002, the slogan "
Think Different " was used in
advertising campaigns, and is still closely associated with Apple.
Apple also has slogans for specific product lines — for example,
"iThink, therefore iMac" was used in 1998 to promote the iMac, and
"Say hello to iPhone" has been used in iPhone advertisements. "Hello"
was also used to introduce the original Macintosh, Newton , iMac
("hello (again)"), and iPod.

From the introduction of the
Macintosh in 1984 with the 1984 Super
Bowl commercial to the more modern '
Get a Mac ' adverts, Apple has
been recognized for its efforts towards effective advertising and
marketing for its products. However, claims made by later campaigns
were criticized , particularly the 2005 Power Mac ads. Apple's
product commercials gained a lot of attention as a result of their
eye-popping graphics and catchy tunes. Musicians who benefited from
an improved profile as a result of their songs being included on Apple
commercials include Canadian singer Feist with the song "1234 " and
Yael Naïm with the song "
New Soul ".

BRAND LOYALTY

Apple aficionados wait in line around an
Apple Store in
anticipation of a new product. "The scenes I witnessed at the
opening of the new Apple store in London's
Covent Garden were more
like an evangelical prayer meeting than a chance to buy a phone or a
laptop." —Alex Riley , writing for the
BBC

Apple customers gained a reputation for devotion and loyalty early in
the company's history. _
BYTE _ in 1984 stated that

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who say Apple
isn't just a company, it's a cause; and people who say Apple isn't a
cause, it's just a company. Both groups are right. Nature has
suspended the principle of noncontradiction where Apple is concerned.

Apple is more than just a company because its founding has some of
the qualities of myth ... Apple is two guys in a garage undertaking
the mission of bringing computing power, once reserved for big
corporations, to ordinary individuals with ordinary budgets. The
company's growth from two guys to a billion-dollar corporation
exemplifies the
American Dream . Even as a large corporation, Apple
plays David to IBM's Goliath, and thus has the sympathetic role in
that myth.

Apple evangelists were actively engaged by the company at one time,
but this was after the phenomenon had already been firmly established.
Apple evangelistGuy Kawasaki has called the brand fanaticism
"something that was stumbled upon," while Ive explained in 2014 that
"People have an incredibly personal relationship" with Apple's
products.
Apple Store openings and new product releases can draw
crowds of hundreds, with some waiting in line as much as a day before
the opening. The opening of
New York City 's
Fifth Avenue "Cube"
store in 2006 became the setting of a marriage proposal, and had
visitors from Europe who flew in for the event. In June 2017, a
newlywed couple took their wedding photos inside the
then-recently-opened Orchard Road
Apple Store in Singapore. The high
level of brand loyalty has been criticized and ridiculed, applying the
epithet "
Apple fanboy " and mocking the lengthy lines before a product
launch. An internal memo leaked in 2015 suggested the company planned
to discourage long lines and direct customers to purchase its products
on its website.

_Fortune _ magazine named Apple the most admired company in the
United States in 2008, and in the world from 2008 to 2012. On
September 30, 2013, Apple surpassed
Coca-Cola to become the world's
most valuable brand in the
Omnicom Group 's "Best Global Brands"
report.
Boston Consulting Group has ranked Apple as the world's most
innovative brand every year since 2005.

_The New York Times_ in 1985 stated that "Apple above all else is a
marketing company".
John Sculley agreed, telling _
The Guardian _
newspaper in 1997 that "People talk about technology, but Apple was a
marketing company. It was the marketing company of the decade."
Research in 2002 by NetRatings indicate that the average Apple
consumer was usually more affluent and better educated than other PC
company consumers. The research indicated that this correlation could
stem from the fact that on average
Apple Inc. products were more
expensive than other PC products.

In response to a query about the devotion of loyal Apple consumers,
Jonathan Ive responded:

What people are responding to is much bigger than the object. They
are responding to something rare—a group of people who do more than
simply make something work, they make the very best products they
possibly can. It's a demonstration against thoughtlessness and
carelessness.

HOME PAGE

The Apple website home page has been used to commemorate, or pay
tribute to, milestones and events outside of Apple's product
offerings:

Apple Inc.'s world corporate headquarters are located in the middle
of
Silicon Valley , at 1–6 Infinite Loop , Cupertino , California.
This Apple campus has six buildings that total 850,000 square feet
(79,000 m2) and was built in 1993 by Sobrato Development Cos.

Apple has a satellite campus in neighboring Sunnyvale,
California ,
where it houses a testing and research laboratory. AppleInsider
published article in March 2014 claiming that Apple has a tucked away
a top-secret facility where is developing the SG5 electric vehicle
project codenamed "Titan" under the shell company name SixtyEight
Research .

In 2006, Apple announced its intention to build a second campus in
Cupertino about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the current campus and next to
Interstate 280. The new campus building has been designed by Norman
Foster . The Cupertino City Council approved the proposed "spaceship"
design campus on October 15, 2013, after a 2011 presentation by Jobs
detailing the architectural design of the new building and its
environs. The new campus is planned to house up to 13,000 employees in
one central, four-storied, circular building surrounded by extensive
landscape. It will feature a café with room for 3,000 sitting people
and parking underground as well as in a parking structure. The 2.8
million square foot facility will also include Jobs's original designs
for a fitness center and a corporate auditorium.

Apple has expanded its campuses in
Austin, Texas concurrently with
building
Apple Park in Cupertino. The expansion consists of two
locations, with one having 1.1 million square feet of workspace, and
the other 216,000 square feet. At the biggest location, 6,000
employees work on technical support, manage Apple's network of
suppliers to fulfill product shipments, aid in maintaining iTunes
Store and App Store , handle economy, and continuously update Apple
Maps with new data. At its smaller campus, 500 engineers work on
next-generation processor chips to run in future Apple products.

Apple's headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
are located in Cork in the south of Ireland . The facility,
which opened in 1980, was Apple's first location outside of the United
States. Apple Sales International, which deals with all of Apple's
international sales outside of the USA, is located at Apple's campus
in Cork along with Apple Distribution International, which similarly
deals with Apple's international distribution network. On April 20,
2012, Apple added 500 new jobs at its European headquarters,
increasing the total workforce from around 2,800 to 3,300 employees.
The company will build a new office block on its Hollyhill Campus to
accommodate the additional staff. Its
United Kingdom headquarters is
at
Stockley Park on the outskirts of
London .

In February 2015, Apple opened their new 180,000-square-foot
headquarters in
Herzliya ,
Israel , which will accommodate
approximately 800 employees. This opening was Apple's third office
located within Israel; the first, also in Herzliya, was obtained as
part of the
Anobit acquisition, and the other is a research center in
Haifa .

In December 2015, Apple bought the 70,000-square-foot manufacturing
facility in North San Jose previously used by
Maxim Integrated , in an
$18.2 million deal.

The first Apple Stores were originally opened as two locations in May
2001 by then-
CEO Steve Jobs, after years of attempting but failing
store-within-a-store concepts. Seeing a need for improved retail
presentation of the company's products, he began an effort in 1997 to
revamp the retail program to get an improved relationship to
consumers, and hired Ron Johnson in 2000. Jobs relaunched Apple's
online store in 1997, and opened the first two physical stores in
2001. Despite initial media speculation that Apple would fail, its
stores were highly successful, bypassing the sales numbers of
competing nearby stores and within three years reached US$1 billion in
annual sales, becoming the fastest retailer in history to do so. Over
the years, Apple has expanded the number of retail locations and its
geographical coverage, with 498 stores across 22 countries worldwide
as of July 2017. Strong product sales have placed Apple among the
top-tier retail stores, with sales over $16 billion globally in 2011.

In May 2016,
Angela Ahrendts , Apple's current Senior Vice President
of Retail, unveiled a significantly redesigned
Apple Store in Union
Square ,
San Francisco , featuring large glass doors for the entry,
open spaces, and rebranded rooms. In addition to purchasing products,
consumers can get advice and help from "Creative Pros" – individuals
with specialized knowledge of creative arts; get product support in a
tree-lined Genius Grove; and attend sessions, conferences and
community events, with Ahrendts commenting that the goal is to make
Apple Stores into "town squares", a place where people naturally meet
up and spend time. The new design will be applied to all Apple Stores
worldwide, a process that has seen stores temporarily relocate or
close.

Many Apple Stores are located inside shopping malls, but Apple has
built several stand-alone "flagship" stores in high-profile locations.
It has been granted design patents and received architectural awards
for its stores' designs and construction, specifically for its use of
glass staircases and cubes. The success of Apple Stores have had
significant influence over other consumer electronics retailers, who
have lost traffic, control and profits due to a perceived higher
quality of service and products at Apple Stores. Apple's notable
brand loyalty among consumers causes long lines of hundreds of people
at new
Apple Store openings or product releases. Due to the
popularity of the brand, there are numerous job applications, many of
which from young workers. Although
Apple Store employees receive
above-average pay, are offered money toward education and health care,
and receive product discounts, there are limited or no paths of
career advancement. A May 2016 report with an anonymous retail
employee highlighted a hostile work environment with harassment from
customers, intense internal criticism, and a lack of significant
bonuses for securing major business contracts.

Apple was one of several highly successful companies founded in the
1970s that bucked the traditional notions of corporate culture . Jobs
often walked around the office barefoot even after Apple became a
Fortune 500 company. By the time of the "1984" television commercial,
Apple's informal culture had become a key trait that differentiated it
from its competitors. According to a 2011 report in _Fortune ,_ this
has resulted in a corporate culture more akin to a startup rather than
a multinational corporation.

As the company has grown and been led by a series of differently
opinionated chief executives, it has arguably lost some of its
original character. Nonetheless, it has maintained a reputation for
fostering individuality and excellence that reliably attracts talented
workers, particularly after Jobs returned to the company. Numerous
Apple employees have stated that projects without Jobs's involvement
often took longer than projects with it. To recognize the best of its
employees, Apple created the Apple Fellows program which awards
individuals who make extraordinary technical or leadership
contributions to personal computing while at the company. The Apple
Fellowship has so far been awarded to individuals including Bill
Atkinson ,
Steve Capps , Rod Holt,
Alan Kay ,
Guy Kawasaki , Al
Alcorn ,
Don Norman ,
Rich Page , and
Steve Wozniak . Steve
Wozniak and
Andy Hertzfeld in 1985

At Apple, employees are specialists who are not exposed to functions
outside their area of expertise. Jobs saw this as a means of having
"best-in-class" employees in every role. For instance, Ron Johnson
—Senior Vice President of Retail Operations until November 1,
2011—was responsible for site selection, in-store service, and store
layout, yet had no control of the inventory in his stores (this was
done by Cook, who had a background in supply-chain management). Apple
is also known for strictly enforcing accountability. Each project has
a "directly responsible individual," or "DRI" in Apple jargon. As an
example, when iOS senior vice president
Scott Forstall refused to sign
Apple's official apology for numerous errors in the redesigned Maps
app , he was forced to resign. Unlike other major U.S. companies
Apple provides a relatively simple compensation policy for executives
that does not include perks enjoyed by other CEOs like country club
fees or private use of company aircraft. The company typically grants
stock options to executives every other year.

In 2015, Apple had 110,000 full-time employees. This increased to
116,000 full-time employees the next year, a notable hiring decrease,
largely due to its first revenue decline. Apple does not specify how
many of its employees work in retail, though its 2014 SEC filing put
the number at approximately half of its employee base.

An editorial article in _
The Verge _ in September 2016 by technology
journalist Thomas Ricker explored some of the public's perceived lack
of innovation at Apple in recent years, specifically stating that
Samsung has "matched and even surpassed Apple in terms of smartphone
industrial design" and citing the belief that Apple is incapable of
producing another breakthrough moment in technology with its products.
He goes on to write that the criticism focuses on individual pieces of
hardware rather than the ecosystem as a whole, stating "Yes, iteration
is boring. But it's also how Apple does business. It enters a new
market and then refines and refines and continues refining until it
yields a success". He acknowledges that people are wishing for the
"excitement of revolution", but argues that people want "the comfort
that comes with harmony". Furthermore, he writes that "a device is
only the starting point of an experience that will ultimately be ruled
by the ecosystem in which it was spawned", referring to how decent
hardware products can still fail without a proper ecosystem
(specifically mentioning that
Walkman didn't have an ecosystem to keep
users from leaving once something better came along), but how Apple
devices in different hardware segments are able to communicate and
cooperate through the iCloud cloud service with features including
Universal Clipboard (in which text copied on one device can be pasted
on a different device) as well as inter-connected device functionality
including Auto Unlock (in which an
Apple Watch can unlock a Mac in
close proximity). He argues that Apple's ecosystem is its greatest
innovation.

Apple has a strong culture of corporate secrecy , and has an
anti-leak Global Security team that recruits from the National
Security Agency , the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United
States Secret Service .

MANUFACTURING

The company's manufacturing, procurement and logistics enable it to
execute massive product launches without having to maintain large,
profit-sapping inventories. In 2011, Apple's profit margins were 40
percent, compared with between 10 and 20 percent for most other
hardware companies. Cook's catchphrase to describe his focus on the
company's operational arm is: "Nobody wants to buy sour milk".

During the Mac's early history Apple generally refused to adopt
prevailing industry standards for hardware, instead creating their
own. This trend was largely reversed in the late 1990s, beginning
with Apple's adoption of the PCI bus in the 7500 /8500 /9500 Power
Macs . Apple has since joined the industry standards groups to
influence the future direction of technology standards such as
USB ,
AGP ,
HyperTransport ,
Wi-Fi , NVMe , PCIe and others in its products.
FireWire is an Apple-originated standard that was widely adopted
across the industry after it was standardized as
IEEE 1394 and is a
legally mandated port in all Cable TV boxes in the United States.

Apple has gradually expanded its efforts in getting its products into
the Indian market. In July 2012, during a conference call with
investors,
CEOTim Cook said that he " India", but that Apple saw
larger opportunities outside the region. India's requirement that 30%
of products sold be manufactured in the country was described as
"really adds cost to getting product to market". In October 2013,
Indian Apple executives unveiled a plan for selling devices through
instalment plans and store-within-a-store concepts, in an effort to
expand further into the market. The news followed Cook's
acknowledgment of the country in July when sales results showed that
iPhone sales in India grew 400% during the second quarter of 2013.
In March 2016, _
The Times of India _ reported that Apple had sought
permission from the Indian government to sell refurbished iPhones in
the country. However, two months later, the application was
rejected, citing official country policy. In May 2016, Apple opened
an iOS app development center in
Bangalore . In February 2017,
Apple once again requested permission to sell used iPhones in the
country. The same month, _Bloomberg _ reported that Apple was close
to receiving permission to open its first retail store in the country.
In March, _
The Wall Street Journal _ reported that Apple would begin
manufacturing iPhone models in India "over the next two months", and
in May, the _Journal_ wrote that an Apple manufacturer had begun
production of iPhone SE in the country, while Apple told _
CNBC _
that the manufacturing was for a "small number" of units.

The company advertised its products as being made in America until
the late 1990s; however, as a result of outsourcing initiatives in the
2000s, almost all of its manufacturing is now handled abroad.
According to a report by _
The New York Times _, Apple insiders
"believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the
flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have
so outpaced their American counterparts that "Made in the U.S.A." is
no longer a viable option for most Apple products".

In 2006, the _
Mail on Sunday _ reported on the working conditions of
the Chinese factories where contract manufacturers
Foxconn and
Inventec produced the iPod. The article stated that one complex of
factories that assembled the iPod and other items had over 200,000
workers living and working within it. Employees regularly worked more
than 60 hours per week and made around $100 per month. A little over
half of the workers' earnings was required to pay for rent and food
from the company.

Apple immediately launched an investigation after the 2006 media
report, and worked with their manufacturers to ensure acceptable
working conditions. In 2007, Apple started yearly audits of all its
suppliers regarding worker\'s rights , slowly raising standards and
pruning suppliers that did not comply. Yearly progress reports have
been published since 2008. In 2011, Apple admitted that its
suppliers' child labor practices in
China had worsened.

The
Foxconn suicides occurred between January and November 2010, when
18
Foxconn (Chinese: 富士康) employees attempted suicide ,
resulting in 14 deaths—the company was the world's largest contract
electronics manufacturer, for clients including Apple, at the time.
The suicides drew media attention, and employment practices at Foxconn
were investigated by Apple. Apple issued a public statement about the
suicides, and company spokesperson Steven Dowling said:

saddened and upset by the recent suicides at
Foxconn ... A team from
Apple is independently evaluating the steps they are taking to address
these tragic events and we will continue our ongoing inspections of
the facilities where our products are made.

The statement was released after the results from the company's probe
into its suppliers' labor practices were published in early 2010.
Foxconn was not specifically named in the report, but Apple identified
a series of serious labor violations of labor laws, including Apple's
own rules, and some child labor existed in a number of factories.
Apple committed to the implementation of changes following the
suicides.

Also in 2010, workers in
China planned to sue iPhone contractors over
poisoning by a cleaner used to clean
LCD screens. One worker claimed
that he and his coworkers had not been informed of possible
occupational illnesses. After a high suicide rate in a Foxconn
facility in
China making iPads and iPhones, albeit a lower rate than
that of
China as a whole, workers were forced to sign a legally
binding document guaranteeing that they would not kill themselves.
Workers in factories producing Apple products have also been exposed
to n-hexane , a neurotoxin that is a cheaper alternative than alcohol
for cleaning the products.

A 2014
BBC investigation found excessive hours and other problems
persisted, despite Apple's promise to reform factory practice after
the 2010
Foxconn suicides. The
Pegatron factory was once again the
subject of review, as reporters gained access to the working
conditions inside through recruitment as employees. While the BBC
maintained that the experiences of its reporters showed that labor
violations were continuing since 2010, Apple publicly disagreed with
the
BBC and stated: "We are aware of no other company doing as much as
Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions".

In December 2014, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
published a report which documented inhumane conditions for the 15,000
workers at a Zhen Ding Technology factory in Shenzhen, China, which
serves as a major supplier of circuit boards for Apple's iPhone and
iPad. According to the report, workers are pressured into 65-hour work
weeks which leaves them so exhausted that they often sleep during
lunch breaks. They are also made to reside in "primitive, dark and
filthy dorms" where they sleep "on plywood, with six to ten workers in
each crowded room." Omnipresent security personnel also routinely
harass and beat the workers.

ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICES AND INITIATIVES

Energy And Resources

Following a
Greenpeace protest, Apple released a statement on April
17, 2012, committing to ending its use of coal and shifting to 100%
renewable clean energy. By 2013 Apple was using 100% renewable
energy to power their data centers. Overall, 75% of the company's
power came from clean renewable sources.

In 2010,
Climate Counts , a nonprofit organization dedicated to
directing consumers toward the greenest companies, gave Apple a score
of 52 points out of a possible 100, which puts Apple in their top
category "Striding". This was an increase from May 2008, when Climate
Counts only gave Apple 11 points out of 100, which placed the company
last among electronics companies, at which time
Climate Counts also
labeled Apple with a "stuck icon", adding that Apple at the time was
"a choice to avoid for the climate conscious consumer".

As of 2016 , Apple states that 100% of its U.S. operations run on
renewable energy , 100% of Apple's data centers run on renewable
energy and 93% of Apple's global operations run on renewable energy.
However, the facilities are connected to the local grid which usually
contains a mix of fossil and renewable sources, so Apple carbon
offsets its electricity use. The Electronic Product Environmental
Assessment Tool (EPEAT) allows consumers to see the effect a product
has on the environment. Each product receives a Gold, Silver, or
Bronze rank depending on its efficiency and sustainability. Every
Apple tablet , notebook , desktop computer , and display that EPEAT
ranks achieves a Gold rating, the highest possible. Although Apple's
data centers recycle water 35 times, the increased activity in
retail, corporate and data centers also increase the amount of water
use to 573 million gallons in 2015.

In May 2015,
Greenpeace evaluated the state of the Green Internet and
commended Apple on their environmental practices saying, "Apple's
commitment to renewable energy has helped set a new bar for the
industry, illustrating in very concrete terms that a 100% renewable
Internet is within its reach, and providing several models of
intervention for other companies that want to build a sustainable
Internet."

During an event on March 21, 2016, Apple provided a status update on
its environmental initiative to be 100% renewable in all of its
worldwide operations.
Lisa P. Jackson , Apple's vice president of
Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives who reports directly to
CEO, Tim Cook, announced that as of March 2016, 93% of Apple's
worldwide operations are powered with renewable energy. Also featured
was the company's efforts to use sustainable paper in their product
packaging; 99% of all paper used by Apple in the product packaging
comes from post-consumer recycled paper or sustainably managed
forests, as the company continues its move to all paper packaging for
all of its products. Apple working in partnership with Conservation
Fund , have preserved 36,000 acres of working forests in
Maine and
North Carolina . Another partnership announced is with the World
Wildlife Fund to preserve up to 1,000,000 acres of forests in China.
Featured was the company's installation of a 40 MW solar power plant
in the
Sichuan province of
China that was tailor made to coexist with
the indigenous yaks that eat hay produced on the land, by raising the
panels to be several feet off of the ground so the yaks and their feed
would be unharmed grazing beneath the array. This installation alone
compensates for more than all of the energy used in Apple's Stores and
Offices in the whole of China, negating the company's energy carbon
footprint in the country. In
Singapore , Apple has worked with the
Singaporean government to cover the rooftops of 800 buildings in the
city-state with solar panels allowing Apple's
Singapore operations to
be run on 100% renewable energy. Liam was introduced to the world, an
advanced robotic disassembler and sorter designed by Apple Engineers
in
California specifically for recycling outdated or broken iPhones.
Reuses and recycles parts from traded in products.

Apple announced on August 16, 2016, that Lens Technology, one of its
major suppliers in China, has committed to power all its glass
production for Apple with 100 percent renewable energy by 2018. The
commitment is a large step in Apple's efforts to help manufacturers
lower their carbon footprint in China. Apple also announced that all
14 of its final assembly sites in
China are now compliant with UL\'s
Zero Waste to
Landfill validation. The standard, which started in
January 2015, certifies that all manufacturing waste is reused ,
recycled , composted , or converted into energy (when necessary).
Since the program began, nearly, 140,000 metric tons of waste have
been diverted from landfills .

Toxins

Following further campaigns by Greenpeace, in 2008, Apple became the
first electronics manufacturer to fully eliminate all polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in its complete
product line. In June 2007, Apple began replacing the cold cathode
fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlit
LCD displays in its computers with
mercury -free LED-backlit
LCD displays and arsenic -free glass,
starting with the upgraded
MacBook Pro . Apple offers
comprehensive and transparent information about the CO2e , emissions ,
materials, and electrical usage concerning every product they
currently produce or have sold in the past (and which they have enough
data needed to produce the report), in their portfolio on their
homepage. Allowing consumers to make informed purchasing decisions on
the products they offer for sale. In June 2009, Apple's iPhone 3GS
was free of PVC, arsenic, and BFRs. All Apple products now have
mercury-free LED-backlit
LCD displays, arsenic-free glass, and non-PVC
cables. All Apple products have EPEAT Gold status and beat the latest
Energy Star guidelines in each product's respective regulatory
category.

In November 2011, Apple was featured in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener
Electronics, which ranks electronics manufacturers on sustainability,
climate and energy policy, and how "green" their products are. The
company ranked fourth of fifteen electronics companies (moving up five
places from the previous year) with a score of 4.6/10. Greenpeace
praises Apple's sustainability , noting that the company exceeded its
70% global recycling goal in 2010. It continues to score well on the
products rating with all Apple products now being free of PVC plastic
and BFRs. However, the guide criticizes Apple on the Energy criteria
for not seeking external verification of its greenhouse gas emissions
data and for not setting out any targets to reduce emissions. In
January 2012, Apple requested that its cable maker, Volex, begin
producing halogen-free
USB and power cables.

Green Bonds

In February 2016, Apple issued a US$1.5 billion green bond (climate
bond), the first ever of its kind by a U.S. tech company. The green
bond proceeds are dedicated to the financing of environmental
projects.

FINANCE

Apple is the world\'s largest information technology company by
revenue, the world's largest technology company by total assets , and
the world\'s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer after
Samsung .
It is also the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by
market capitalization , with an estimated market capitalization of
$800 billion in May 2017. In February 2015, Apple became the first
U.S. corporation to be valued at over $700 billion.

In its fiscal year ending in September 2011,
Apple Inc. reported a
total of $108 billion in annual revenues—a significant increase from
its 2010 revenues of $65 billion—and nearly $82 billion in cash
reserves . On March 19, 2012, Apple announced plans for a
$2.65-per-share dividend beginning in fourth quarter of 2012, per
approval by their board of directors. On September 2012, Apple
reached a record share price of more than $705 and closed at above
700. With 936,596,000 outstanding shares (as of June 30, 2012 ),

The company's worldwide annual revenue in 2013 totaled $170 billion.
In May 2013, Apple entered the top ten of the
Fortune 500 list of
companies for the first time, rising 11 places above its 2012 ranking
to take the sixth position. As of 2016 , Apple has around US$234
billion of cash and marketable securities, of which 90% is located
outside the
United States for tax purposes.

Apple amassed 65% of all profits made by the eight largest worldwide
smartphone manufacturers in quarter one of 2014, according to a report
by
Canaccord Genuity . In the first quarter of 2015, the company
garnered 92% of all earnings.

On April 30, 2017, _
The Wall Street Journal _ reported that Apple had
cash reserves of $250 billion, officially confirmed by Apple as
specifically $256.8 billion a few days later. Coupled with a strong
market capitalization around the same time, reports predicted Apple
will soon become the world's first $1 trillion dollar company.

Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places such as Ireland ,
the
Netherlands ,
Luxembourg and the
British Virgin Islands to cut the
taxes it pays around the world. According to _The New York Times,_ in
the 1980s Apple was among the first tech companies to designate
overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed
the company to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other
continents, sidestepping income taxes. In the late 1980s Apple was a
pioneer of an accounting technique known as the "Double Irish with a
Dutch sandwich ," which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish
subsidiaries and the
Netherlands and then to the Caribbean.

British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Charlie Elphicke
published research on October 30, 2012, which showed that some
multinational companies, including Apple Inc., were making billions of
pounds of profit in the UK, but were paying an effective tax rate to
the UK Treasury of only 3 percent, well below standard corporation tax
. He followed this research by calling on the Chancellor of the
Exchequer
George Osborne to force these multinationals, which also
included
Google and The
Coca-Cola Company , to state the effective
rate of tax they pay on their UK revenues. Elphicke also said that
government contracts should be withheld from multinationals who do not
pay their fair share of UK tax.

It is a matter of public record that
Apple Inc. is the single largest
taxpayer to the Department of the Treasury of the
United States of
America with an effective tax rate of approximately of 26% as of the
Second Quarter of the Apple Fiscal Year 2016.

In 2015,
Reuters reported that Apple had earnings abroad of $54.4
billion which were untaxed by the
IRS of the United States. Under U.S.
tax law governed by the IRC , corporations don't pay income tax on
overseas profits unless the profits are repatriated into the United
States and as such Apple argues that to benefit its shareholders it
will leave it overseas until a repatriation holiday or comprehensive
tax reform takes place in the United States.

On August 30, 2016, after a three-year investigation by the EU's
competition commissioner that concluded that Apple received "illegal
state aid" from Ireland, the EU ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros
($14.5 billion), plus interest, in unpaid taxes. Specifically, the
commissioner found that Apple had benefitted from Irish Department of
Revenue tax rulings that allowed it to split the profits recorded by
Apple Sales International internally between its Irish branch and a
stateless "head office" entity lacking employees or premises
(permitted under Irish law until 2013). The Chancellor of
Austria ,
Christian Kern , put this decision into perspective by stating that
"every Viennese cafe, every sausage stand pays more tax in Austria
than a multinational corporation".

OWNERSHIP

Apple Inc. is a joint-stock company registered with the SEC . As of
30 December 2016 , it has 5,257,816,000 outstanding shares. These are
mainly held by institutional investors and funds.

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